| Southern Home Closes Acquisition of Ladies Health & Fitness USA; Ladies Health & Fitness to Launch National Franchise ...
SPARTANBURG, S.C., Feb. 5, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- ENCORE, the Health & Wellness Division of Southern Home Medical Equipment, Inc. (Pink Sheets:SHMM), announced today that it completed the closing of the purchase of Ladies Health & Fitness, USA. Based out of Greenville, S.C., Ladies Health & Fitness caters their 30-minute fitness programs exclusively to women. Greg Tucker, President of Southern Home stated, "We are excited to have this closing complete. The Ladies Health & Fitness team is an energetic group and they're passionate about what they do. We're optimistic about their long-term growth through franchising." Ladies Health & Fitness offers a complete range of circuit training equipment, including treadmills, recumbent bicycles, aerobic boards, elliptical trainers, dumbbells, free weights, glute press, and a full range of resistance machines.
Gene Behind Lincoln’s Disease
The discovery may provide a new explanation for spinocerebellar ataxia type 5 (SCA5), a disease previously tied to a human version of the gene and identified in 11 generations of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln's family, starting with his paternal grandparents. SCA5 may have afflicted Lincoln himself. The new study suggests how.
"Were Lincoln's nerves shattered? We don't know. But our study raises the possibility that they were," says biology Professor Michael Bastiani, the study's senior author and a member of the Brain Institute at the University of Utah.
The study involved a worm gene named unc-70 that makes a protein named beta spectrin. Humans have four beta spectrin genes, and mutations in one of them was identified previously as the cause of SCA5, a neurodegenerative disease that develops between ages 10 and 68; destroys nerve cells in the part of the brain that controls movements; causes loss of coordination in walking, speaking, writing and swallowing; and puts some patients in wheelchairs.
Engineering Team Reaches National Final
For the second consecutive year, the engineering team at Westport's Staples High School has made it into the final round of the National Engineering Design Challenge. The team will travel to Washington Feb. 15-17 to present its final design. The Staples team placed second last year and first in 2001 in the competition, which is sponsored by the Junior Engineering and Technical Society (JETS). The challenge for this year was to design a device to improve life for people with disabilities, and the team designed a retractable shelving system that would enable a person in a wheel chair to utilize the upper and lower shelves with ease. Although targeting users in wheelchairs, the device would also be useful to those too short to reach upper shelves without a step-stool and also to those for whom bending or crouching to reach the lower shelves is not possible or uncomfortable. The team members will fine tune their prototype and work on their presentation before traveling to Washington.
County work to aid disabled
Officials in Kanawha County have started work on changes to government buildings and properties to make them more accessible and useful for people with physical disabilities. The total cost of the endeavor still hasn't been determined, but officials consider the cause worthwhile. "I'm sure there will be people who'll say it will be a waste of money, but it's the law," said Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper. "More importantly, it's the right thing to do." In December the county entered into an agreement with the U.S Department of Justice to make county-owned properties fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The county was the 150th governmental entity in the country to agree to total federal compliance. The act, signed into law in 1990, was enacted to protect the civil rights of all disabled Americans relating to employment, telecommunications and services at public buildings.
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